System Spec's and Benchmarks

Prelude to Benchmarks - Test System Configuration

Over the following page we'll be running the dual socket 604 Intel
Xeon 3.06GHz processor based Tyan S2726UG5N server motherboard though
PCSTATS standard set of server benchmarks. The specific details of how the
Tyan S2726UG5N motherboard test system and client computers were configured
for benchmarking - including the hardware, software drivers, operating system
and benchmark versions - are indicated below.

Take a moment to look over PCSTATS test system configurations
before moving on to the individual benchmark results on the next several pages.

Please keep in mind that this is a server motherboard review,
and that's why there are only a couple of network related
benchmarks.

NetBench is a portable benchmark program that measures how well a
file server handles file I/O requests from 32-bit Windows clients, which pelt
the server with requests for network file operations. NetBench
reports throughput and client response time measurements. Version 7.0.2 of
NetBench answers user requests for greater disk coverage and more disk-testing
flexibility. To run NetBench, you need a file server, a PC running
Windows NT or Windows 2000 (called the controller) to start and
monitor the tests, and clients that are running either
Windows 95/98 or Windows NT/2000.

NetBench

dm_nb701 Test

Throughput

Ranking

Dual CPU HT Enabled

6

Dual CPU HT Disabled

6

Single CPU HT Enabled

6

Single CPU HT Disabled

6

en_dm_nb701

Throughput

Ranking

Dual CPU HT Enabled

84.62

>

Dual CPU HT Disabled

84.62

Single CPU HT Enabled

84.62

Single CPU HT Disabled

81.14

In the
first two tests we see that dual CPU's with and without
HT do very little to impact overall performance. We don't have enough machines
in the PCStats test labs to put a real load on the Tyan 2726UGN
server.

It seems in the NIC_nb701 portion of Netbench
there's a very small difference between one and two physical CPU's but HT does
not come into play here. Remember HyperThreading technology takes advantage of
the "free" execution units, if most are being used the second virtual CPU has
nothing to compute with.